Sonics eke out important win

Sonics coach Bob Hill figured he was going to have to go against his defensive philosophies and use a zone defense to stop the Cleveland Cavaliers on Tuesday night at KeyArena. The Cavaliers shot 45 percent in the first 24 minutes, scored 26 points in the paint and 7-foot-3 Zydrunas Ilgauskas had 16 points and six rebounds.

Hill said Saturday he had been working on a new defense to neutralize players such as LeBron James, who make a living driving to the basket and drawing fouls. Countless times this season, the Sonics had been the victim of an opposing scorer going to the hoop and drawing fouls, which proved critical in the final minutes.

James did get to the free throw line 10 times in the second half, but his teammates combined for just three trips and they also faltered from long range, missing 12 of 15 3-point attempts. The Sonics’ matchup zone was aggressive and Cleveland appeared confused. James never appeared the same after getting clubbed in the face by Johan Petro on a drive to the basket in the third quarter.

Petro might be hearing from the NBA today about that foul, because the replay looked pretty bad.

The Sonics are finally getting some rebounds in crucial stretches, and they didn’t have to go out and overpay for a cagey veteran to do it. Nick Collison is playing the best basketball of his Sonics career, and he turned in 14 points and 12 rebounds on an off night. Andre Brown is making a case for staying for the remainder of the season and essentially making Danny Fortson expendable, as he grabbed five rebounds in 15 minutes and hit 4 of 5 shots.

Seattle is using this long home stretch for exactly what it envisioned, a chance to gets some rest, change up some defensive philosophies and rack up some wins. Now that they have beaten the Northwest Division leaders (Utah) and the team with the best record in the Eastern Conference (Cleveland), the Sonics have some winnable games remaining on this homestand with Milwaukee (without Michael Redd and Mo Williams) on Friday followed by Denver (with Carmelo Anthony), Minnesota and the Los Angeles Clippers. None of those teams is as imposing as Utah and Cleveland, but the Sonics have to maintain this level of play to finish this homestand on a positive note.